Bacterial infection is a major health threat to patients with severe burns and other kinds of serious wounds such as traumatic bone fractures. Recent studies have identified an important new weapon for fighting infection and healing wounds: insulin.

Now, using tiny nanodiamonds, researchers at Northwestern University have demonstrated an innovative method for delivering and releasing the curative hormone at a specific location over a period of time. The nanodiamond-insulin clusters hold promise for wound-healing applications and could be integrated into gels, ointments, bandages or suture materials.

Interesting to see how stronger developing markets, such as China & Brazil, seem to ’save the day’ for Kimberly-Clark, where personal care product sales rose by 1 percent, underlining the marked difference between those and the hard hit developed markets where sales have been declining. Chris Penfold

Kimberly-Clark sales down but outlook up on lower costs by Simon Pitman, 27-Jul-2009 www.cosmeticsdesign.com

Personal care giant Kimberly-Clark says net sales fell 6 per cent during its second quarter but says cost savings should boost full year results.

Sales for the period totaled $4.7bn, a figure that was hit by currency translation to the tune of 8 percent on the back of a strong US dollar against international currencies.

Bokodes, if you don’t already know, are 3mm-diameter, powered tags that currently consist of an LED, covered with a tiny mask and a lens. They can hold thousands of times more information than their striped ‘bar code cousins’ and can be read by a standard mobile phone camera.

In the longer term they could be used to “encode nutrition information on food packaging or create new devices for playing video games”. They certainly sound like a fascinating technology and if they work as planned & promised, I believe that they will be a great ’step forward’. However, I have 2 areas of concern: (a) I find it difficult to believe that they will be read accurately from 4 metres away (let alone 20 metres as hoped) and that (b) the price will come down from the present £3 cost-point to 5 cents! If both of those targets are hit - fantastic. If not, failure on either count could ‘blow this innovation out of the water’ before it gets launched. So there is a long way to go yet but watch this space for further information, as it becomes available………Chris Penfold